Theater: St. Joan

G. B. Shaw's plays have taken his death badly. The scenes creak at the
joints. The wit sputters more often than it fizzes. The characters seem
alive from the neck up only. St. Joan has not been spared. In a
conscientious but lethargic revival at Manhattan's Lincoln Center
Repertory Theater, the play drones on like a college seminar labeled
"The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Nationalism, 1412-1431." In the
title role, Diana Sands is earth-bound but never God-intoxicated, more
of a common scold than an uncommon saint.

The theatrical problem of St. Joan is an immense credibility gap. At the
heart...